Racist Jazz

Few things frustrate me more than the assertion that Donald Trump is a political genius. Oh hai, Bret Stephens–glad you tossed your hat into the ring!

The idea that Trump is some political savant is absurd. I’ve been saying this ever since he came down that Sears escalator, but no one has described Trump’s political instincts as succinctly as Jon Lovett did on the latest episode of “Pod Save America,” when he said what Trump does is just “racist jazz.” And I can’t imagine there being a more apt description anywhere, because that’s what Trump does–he riffs. He throws some racism out there and then he scats a little misogyny then he waits an awkward amount of beats before throwing in some white nationalism. It’s just him throwing shit at the wall and seeing what the audience likes.

I could get a conservative grift up and running in 2 days max. I’d dye my hair about 5 shades lighter, change my name Karen Triggerlib, say I’m a Greenville, SC native and “proud Navy mom” and then I’d start Instragramming myself open-carrying a machete while wearing a MAGA hat and making the baristas at Caribou Coffee write “Trump is bae” on my cups. Boom! I’d have 50,000 Flag-boner accounts following me and a spot at the next TPUSA fart-sniffing convention. That’s because grifting conservatives is literally easiest thing in the world. Conservatives don’t ask for much. They just ask that you stimulate their pleasure centers, which are triggering libs and lib-triggering, respectively. Any idiot can do it. And lots of idiots do! Trump just happens to be one of them.